Could CELLPHONE TOWERS somehow be throwing off bee hive communication, activities, pheromone control, navigation, etc.? Some of this in my words, but the gist of it from Lpaul the email-er.

Could the primitive eyes, those little miraculous GPS's which not only tell the bees which way is up but has be suspected to sense the CURRENT SUNS LOCATION 24/7 so that even long after dark workers can communicated a nectar source relative to the current suns location.

In the last decade cellphone towers have grown exponentially and do we know what frequencies Bees work on? Could actual or heterodyne frequencies be messing with their minds, maybe creating sounds or vibrations like a dog-whistle, forcing bees from their homes? Or throwing off their flight navigation so badly they either cannot find their way home or have trouble even with orientation flights.

It is an interesting question, one which we could think of many other simple processes that disturb the traits of the honeybees. Take a creature with millions of years of evolution and subject it to a new technology, how long with it take to adapt (if ever) or would it rather abscond to the wild away from these electronic nightmares of man's creation called cell towers.

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I think I could add that most cell towers broadcast multiple frequencies too - they triangulate and beem content overlapping areas that just a few years ago didn't have these obstructions.

No... I don't think cell towers are the cause of CCD, at least not alone they are not. Can we easily discount them after seeing images of how honeybees form comb when electromagnets are placed near the hives - I don't know.

I think Earth is changing, trying to save "Her" self from the disease of humankind, our over-populating and over-polluting the planet. The creatures on Earth cannot keep up with both man's destructive nature and Earth's necessary climatic and cyclical events geared at preserving it.

Earth is a living and YES Breathing organism which is in crisis - not for the first time, nor the last, but we are witnessing how it takes measure to CLEANSE itself of deadly parasites and infection. I'm a firm believer that MAN can destroy MAN, but I don't think we can "Permanently" destroy Earth. For now, whether global warming, or some unknown LAST DITCH EFFORT that Earth will show us, Man will find out soon enough that supporting 6.5 billion people IS NOT PART OF EARTH'S PLAN.

Frogs are dying, bees are disappearing, migrating animals are changing paths, geological areas are growing or flooding or disappearing, Earth is changing to save herself - all we can do is standby and watch, because no matter where we are on the food chain, we are nothing more than passengers here on Planet Earth.

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Could CELLPHONE TOWERS somehow be throwing off bee hive communication, activities, pheromone control, navigation, etc.? Some of this in my words, but the gist of it from Lpaul the email-er.

Why not? There is on my summer cottaga area 3 miles from a 1200 feet high radio tower. Farmer joke with tower that thunder clouds attach to tower and that is why there are so much lightings. Area is dry because tower cut rain clouds and they just devide somewhere else.

I think all structured, whether they produce signals or not effect the surrounding area..

Here in the States we see TIME AND TIME AGAIN tornadoes forming around and then wiping out trailer parks. It doesn't matter which state, how far inland or near the coastlines, it seems that the basic layout of the AVERAGE mobile home community (especially the older models made of more metal than composites) either attract or manifest tornado activity.

I use to thing this a coincidence, but no longer do. I know that the number of housing units in the United States Southern Regions are staggeringly proportioned into many mobile home parks or similar homes - but knowing that "Tornado Alley" stretches across many Mid-Western States from Mexico to Canada, it seems so strange that each time GROUND ZERO of tornado touch downs seem to have this theme.

If the mere arrangement of objects can Feng Shui weather activity, then surely the minute' electrical and magnetic currents used by honeybees may be effected by many man-made objects - cell towers sound as good a culprit as any. It always goes back to MAN being the evil beast that has changed the face of the planet. I doubt that all the species on Earth would miss us if we weren't around. I often wonder, how many have evolved already (or failed to) in order to live on the same planet as us?

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Here in the States we see TIME AND TIME AGAIN tornadoes forming around and then wiping out trailer parks. It doesn't matter which state, how far inland or near the coastlines, it seems that the basic layout of the AVERAGE mobile home community (especially the older models made of more metal than composites) either attract or manifest tornado activity.

Excuse me! I have lived in Mobile homes most of my life. I am in one now that is built exactly as any house is. Wooden floor that is carpeted. 2x4 wall studs with sheet rock walls on the inside and OBS boards on the outside covered with a plastic siding. Asphalt shingles on the roof.

What about these "normal" houses that have metal siding and roofs? That is more metal than any mobile home I ever lived in.

Mobile home parks no more attract tornadoes than any place else. The twister forms some where and goes some where. Mobile homes just get destroyed more because the wind can get under it. A regular house built the same as a mobile home would receive just as much damage. Bricks placed on the out side would help a little.

May 11, 1970. Tornado tore a wide swath through Lubbock, Texas. Very few mobile homes were hit.

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:rainbowflower: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. :rainbowflower:

Jerry hi! Was it your first hive tried to make its home inside water pump shelter. It tried to find faradey cage around it's home.In Florida they try to hidden inside plastic cages like into boats, compost boxes .

"Wikipedia: A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure formed by conducting material, or by a mesh of such material. Such an enclosure blocks out external static electrical fields."

Jerry hi! Was it your first hive tried to make its home inside water pump shelter. It tried to find faradey cage around it's home

There was a swarm that moved into the box that covers the controls switches for the pump. That was a small swarm that I had to kill off to replace parts. That is when I decided to give beekeeping a try.

The box is made of plastic and only about 3/4 the size of a Langstroth deep.

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:rainbowflower: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. :rainbowflower:

It tried to find faradey cage around it's home. But price is bad 1320 $ Abandoned car would be cheaper.

The idea of the bees seeking out a Faraday cage is pretty amusing.

As far a cell phones etc. harming bee navigation. I think it's pretty doubtful. The bandwidth range of cell phones etc is much lower band radiation than light or the UV, gamma and other high-energy radiation that bombards the earth every day. I suppose it's possible that the bees depend on subtle differences in the earth's magnet field to navigate which could be disrupted by other EM fields, but it seems a stretch to me.

I would guess our problems with bees is much more mundane... like poor border controls that have allowed the introduction of nasty diseases, parasites, and invasive species. It's easy to blame mysterious, but I think our problems are a lot closer to home.

"bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold."

Now how do they know that is what is happening?

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:rainbowflower: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. :rainbowflower:

"bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold."

Now how do they know that is what is happening?

They don't but they have to keep their audience. If you can't dazzle them with brillance than dazzle them with.................

Does anyone know if the colony collapse disorder is affecting the Africanized honey bee population in the wild and in managed hives? Would be interesting to know if it is affecting them also and not just the European honey bee.

i think that for now, only big keepers have been affected, the ones that "drag" their bees on excessive pollinations and stuff. so the wild populations oughta not to be affected, neither are backyard keepers.

Does anyone know if the colony collapse disorder is affecting the Africanized honey bee population in the wild and in managed hives? Would be interesting to know if it is affecting them also and not just the European honey bee.

The current research involves commerical beekeepers who migrate only.

Sincerely,Brendhan

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The status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. Dr. Horrible

I was with the dude doing the aspergillus research, in FL. (That fungus) His name is Dennis van Englesdorp, acting chief apiarist of Penn. One version of aspergillis causes "stonebrood" a common bee brood disease. His thinking is that since it's everywhere, and it's common to all the CCD sites that perhaps a mutated or previously unknown version could be a pathogen. Go slow here, because another version of aspergillis is used in the fermentation process that is used in making HFCS. The samples are still being read. I have heard of no synergy with this fungus and anything else. I imagine that I don't know any more about the cause because no one really knows yet. That didn't stop me from writing a lengthy article on the subject for Apr ABJ. My searching did teach me that a new Nosema is on the horizon. It's Nosema Ceranae and it's killed a lot of hives in Spain and other countries. Fumidol works on it. I'm going to start using it.